Achieving Something at Last
I woke up in the morning with good intentions for the day. Actually, I began last night with good intentions for today. I’m giving myself a do-over. I don’t like do-overs, because it means it already spent the time not-doing the very thing I should be doing. Nevertheless, I would follow the rules, whatever they are.
I meant to review the video plug-in for a website I was working on, and if I liked it thought I might compare it to another, and then to yet another that was better than the one we used for CCN. I didn’t get there, because I very much needed to upload a png to the RL project site on an OS Second Life sim, and for the life of me I have not been able to construct, modify, layer, or save a png that was not gauzy and not at all opaque in some areas and transparent in some areas.
I finally begged help from a very good friend, who, even though recovering from an illness, took the time to walk me through the procedure. Unfortunately, the program I was currently using was as not the same as hers and although I thought the steps would be similar, they were not.
Stop. Do-over begins.
At this point I fired up the connect-to-the-virtual desktop at school and took the lengthy amount of time to get it all set up. My getting-old-lappy complained, but since I’d given it a good cleaning yesterday, I told it to be quiet. Dum dee dum…. twiddle thumbs…. make coffee… connection established, please wait for the virtual desktop to start….. choose your program group…. please wait for the virtual desktop to continue…. choose your program…. get another cup of coffee…. start up the old-old computer… please wait for the program to start… check a forum on the old-old computer… program finally starts.
Each step takes quite a long time, mostly because my little lappy is rather slow. Funny, it is actually the fastest of all the computers we have, but in comparison to the speed with which technology has advanced, it is now considered old. I’ve been trying to raise the funds for a new desktop, but alas, donations are not forthcoming for the Computer-for-Ghaelen campaign. Don’t know why…
Oh yes, in case you are wondering, I did finally get rid of the sneaky Pete in my lappy. It was not really dangerous, just a nuisance that likes to watch everything one does. I wonder if that is what “The Watcher” does in the cavern. The whole fiasco was my own fault, really, for not running regular scans. I am rather disappointed with Spybot though.
Application open. Upload image to modify… step one… wait… setp two, wait. Spending the time I didn’t want to spend yesterday. Step three…. wait. You really should stop complaining as that little malware would still be running, Ghaelen. Ok, step four… save to png…
Here’s the real problem. I am not certain Second Life will run with this application open. If not, I have to close this down, and then if I missed a step or it doesn’t work, do I do the whole thing over? Well, I guess I’ll find out just how much of a trooper my little lappy is.
Fire up SL, go to OS grid. Program loading…. erg, a grind… wait. Get more coffee…. try the login button…. wait… check a forum. Oh hey, I think the Memorial event will be a go. Cool. Logged in to SL (is the virtual desktop still connected? I am trying to hurry, but hurrying is no longer in the cards for this laptop.) Ok, upload image… wait. Rez cube… make bigger… argh, this is going slowly now, lol. Open inventory… paste image to cube.
Gauzy.
Sit and stare at it.
Wait, Ruby told me she sometimes had to use a second viewer. But the one I like can’t connect to this OS grid. So, I’ll have to go to regular SL… I’ll go to the building studio the professor allows me to use.
Quit OS grid. Maximize the virtual desktop window — still running? Connected? Ok everyone, let’s try this one more time…
Launch different viewer… wait. Make another pot of coffee. Ok, program started. Login… wait. check another forum. Oh look, a Moul update! Add a trip to the Cavern to my list. SL Healers’ Outreach retreat loaded. Here I am. Maybe I’ll just try a cube right here, so nothing has a reason to crash. Rez a cube… wait? What? Oh boy. Oh, upload an image… wait. Pay money. Grrrrr. Drink some coffee. Open inventory. Good thing it goes right to the most recent added object. Pull image to cube, and wait….
Huzzah! Oh my gawd it worked! Jump up and down in RL because my avie is frozen. Whoo Hoo!
Sigh a big sigh, quit out of SL. Back to the virtual desktop and spend an inordinate amount of time preparing only two other images. Quit out upload, and then begin a new round of investigation — get into the OS grid with a viewer that will show this texture correctly, and see if Gimp will work if I follow the same steps. It is free, which is all I can afford right now. I am disappointed in my tried-and-true program, but I won’t uninstall it until I do more tests. That will be down the road at some much later point.
For now, though, back to the initial task on my to-do list. Check out video plugins for the website. Sigh. That takes a completely new round of tests, another several hours, and another set of possibilities for inviting sneaky-Pete’s into my computer’s life.
I could do something else for enjoyment, but then what would be the fun of that? I love audio, video, 3D, virtual world anythings, and would rather create in virtual reality and new (and old) media than avoid the sneaky-Pete risk altogether. It only makes good cavernsense.
I head to bed with good intentions for tomorrow.